Making Tübingen/Stuttgart your home and not just your work place as quickly as possible is the aim of the Welcome Service.
The Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems wants to welcome you by assisting you in settling in.
You are becoming not just part of an institute but of a community.

Here we try to answer general question on all topics that concern everyone who comes to Tübingen/Stuttgart: directions, bus lines, dealing with authorities (visa, residence permit, etc.), house hunting, and becoming a PhD student:

General Information

Living and working in Germany

Newcomer Timeline

Please notice the different deadlines!! All of the procedures mentioned above have to be completed before your visa expires. Some of them have to be completed in order for you to get paid by the MPI IS.

Apartment / Living Information

NEVER transfer any money or send any personal data or documents to anyone who has advertised an apartment before seeing the place! This is a popular scam! Please be very alert if an ad sounds too good to be true! It is common to pay a deposit AFTER you have seen the place/signed the contract, never before.

Note: Information relevant to Stuttgart and the Stuttgart campus will follow soon

Looking for an apartment / room in Tübingen online

Tübingen suffers from a severe shortage of housing, especially affordable for students/PhD. Please give your housing situation some thought well before you arrive here.

Websites

Tübingen suffers from a severe shortage of housing, especially affordable for students/PhD. Please give your housing situation some thought well before you arrive here.

wg-gesucht.de(Shared apartments and rooms and short term rentals; website available in English)

Uni Tübingen(University accomodation for guests and employees, also available to MPI members if free; website available in English)

Even if you do not speak German, you might want to give German websites a try. There is a list of abbreviations commonly used in German real estate ads translated into English available
(Please contact Sabrina Jung or Mara Cascianelli for this list):

Mitwohnzentrale(Short term and limited term rentals - only available in German)

Tagblatt(Local newspaper; only available in German. Advertisements on Wednesday and Saturday; Placing an ad in the local newspaper also works well and is affordable)

Registration Information

Note: Information relevant to Stuttgart and the Stuttgart campus will follow soon

Going to the Registration and the Foreigners Authorities

This is a rough overview of what you have to do once you arrive in Germany and in Tübingen:

Registration with the City of Tübingen

If you move to a German city, you have two weeks to register your new address with the city. In Tübingen, this is done in the "Ausländeramt", the Foreigner’s Office.

You can either go there yourself (the employees speak English and will assist you in filling in the form) or you can ask either Sabrina or Mara to come with you, if you think you need help with that. If you choose to go by yourself, please remember to bring your passport!

Since 2016 it is obligatory to confirm that you are currently living somewhere in Tübingen to register to the city. There is a document for that called “Wohnungsgeberbestätigung” that you can pick up at our HR and Welcome Service office. Beside that you also need to bring your rental agreement with you. If you don’t have it because you’re staying at a hotel or in sublease, you’ll need a letter by your landlord of hotel staff that confirms that you’re staying at the hotel/apartment for a certain period of time.

You also need to reregister when you move within Tübingen and deregister when you leave Germany for good at the Bürgerbüro:

How to get there (From the MPI campus)

Directions (How to find us)

Tübingen Campus

Max-Planck-Ring 4
72076 Tübingen
Germany

Arriving by plane

The nearest airport is Stuttgart. After arriving you can take the Airportsprinter (Bus 828), which will take you directly to the main station in Tübingen with a journey time of about one hour. You can also take a taxi. The taxi ride only takes 30 to 40 minutes and will cost approx. 50 € Euro. If you like to book a MiniCar (taxi) in advance, call +49 (0)7071-93500.

Arriving by train

Intercity trains, including the high-speed ICE service, will bring you to Stuttgart main station, from where a local train takes about an hour to reach Tübingen. From here the Max Planck Campus can be reached by taxi (10 minutes) or bus (20 to 30 minutes including walking and waiting times). The bus station and taxi rank are both directly opposite the main exit from Tübingen station.

Arriving by bus

Starting at the main station in Tübingen with bus no. 3 in the direction of “Ulmenweg” to the bus stop "Max Planck Institute" it takes about 15 minutes to reach the campus. From the bus stop you need to walk about 100 meters downhill and then pass the central parking lot to the right and follow the stairways down to the Max Planck Campus.

Alternatively, you can take bus no. 4 in the direction of “WHO Ulmenweg” until you reach the bus stop “Corrensstraße” or "Niethammerstraße". Across the road from this bus stop, a flight of steps leads uphill through some trees. Follow these steps until you reach the street called Spemannstraße. Take care in winter as the steps are not cleared. The Max Planck Campus lies to your right-hand side. In both cases you have about a 5- to 10-minute walk from the bus stop to the campus.

Arriving by car

Find us ising the following GPS Coordinates:

Latitude : 48.535391
Longitude : 9.057437

Stuttgart Campus

Heisenbergstr. 3
70569 Stuttgart
Germany

Arriving by plane

Stuttgart´s airport isn´t far. From there take the S2 (direction Schorndorf) or S3 (direction Backnang) to Vaihingen. Take the Bus line 81 in the direction to Büsnau. After 10 minutes you´ll reach the “Max Planck Institutes” bus stop. Cross the street and walk up Heisenbergstrasse. First comes the MPI for Solid State Research building. Continue another 100m up the road and you´ll reach the main entrance of the MPI for Intelligent Systems.

Arriving by train

ICE, IC and EC trains go to Stuttgart central station (Hauptbahnhof). From here take the S-Bahn S1 (direction Herrenberg), S2 (direction Filderstadt) or S3 (direction Flughafen/Messe) to “Universität”. From there it’s a short 3 minute walk to the bus station where the 84 or 92 will take you to the “Max Planck Institutes” bus stop. Once you reach there, cross the street and walk up Heisenbergstrasse. First comes the MPI for Solid State Research building. Continue another 100m up the road and you´ll reach the main entrance of the MPI for Intelligent Systems.

Arriving by bus

Starting at the main station in Stuttgart (Hauptbahnhof), take the S1, S2 or S3 to “Universität”. From there walk roughly 3 minutes to the bus stop bearing the same name and take either the busline 84, 92 747 or 748. Or from the Metrostation Vaihingen take the 81 to Büsnau.

Arriving by car

Find us ising the following GPS Coordinates:

Latitude : 48.746083
Longitude : 9.079959

Tübingen Campus

Stuttgart Campus

Max-Planck-Ring 4
72076 Tübingen
Germany

Heisenbergstr. 3
70569 Stuttgart
Germany

Arriving by plane

The nearest airport is Stuttgart. After arriving you can take the Airportsprinter (Bus 828), which will take you directly to the main station in Tübingen with a journey time of about one hour. You can also take a taxi. The taxi ride only takes 30 to 40 minutes and will cost approx. 50 € Euro. If you like to book a MiniCar (taxi) in advance, call +49 (0)7071-93500.

Arriving by plane

Stuttgart´s airport isn´t far. From there take the S2 (direction Schorndorf) or S3 (direction Backnang) to Vaihingen. Take the Bus line 81 in the direction to Büsnau. After 10 minutes you´ll reach the “Max Planck Institutes” bus stop. Cross the street and walk up Heisenbergstrasse. First comes the MPI for Solid State Research building. Continue another 100m up the road and you´ll reach the main entrance of the MPI for Intelligent Systems.

Arriving by train

Intercity trains, including the high-speed ICE service, will bring you to Stuttgart main station, from where a local train takes about an hour to reach Tübingen. From here the Max Planck Campus can be reached by taxi (10 minutes) or bus (20 to 30 minutes including walking and waiting times). The bus station and taxi rank are both directly opposite the main exit from Tübingen station.

Arriving by train

ICE, IC and EC trains go to Stuttgart central station (Hauptbahnhof). From here take the S-Bahn S1 (direction Herrenberg), S2 (direction Filderstadt) or S3 (direction Flughafen/Messe) to “Universität”. From there it’s a short 3 minute walk to the bus station where the 84 or 92 will take you to the “Max Planck Institutes” bus stop. Once you reach there, cross the street and walk up Heisenbergstrasse. First comes the MPI for Solid State Research building. Continue another 100m up the road and you´ll reach the main entrance of the MPI for Intelligent Systems.

Arriving by bus

Starting at the main station in Tübingen with bus no. 3 in the direction of “Ulmenweg” to the bus stop "Max Planck Institute" it takes about 15 minutes to reach the campus. From the bus stop you need to walk about 100 meters downhill and then pass the central parking lot to the right and follow the stairways down to the Max Planck Campus.

Alternatively, you can take bus no. 4 in the direction of “WHO Ulmenweg” until you reach the bus stop “Corrensstraße” or "Niethammerstraße". Across the road from this bus stop, a flight of steps leads uphill through some trees. Follow these steps until you reach the street called Spemannstraße. Take care in winter as the steps are not cleared. The Max Planck Campus lies to your right-hand side. In both cases you have about a 5- to 10-minute walk from the bus stop to the campus.

Arriving by bus

Starting at the main station in Stuttgart (Hauptbahnhof), take the S1, S2 or S3 to “Universität”. From there walk roughly 3 minutes to the bus stop bearing the same name and take either the busline 84, 92, 747 or 748. Or from the Metrostation Vaihingen take the 81 to Büsnau.

Arriving by car

Find us using the following GPS Coordinates:

Latitude : 48.535391
Longitude : 9.057437

Arriving by car

Find us using the following GPS Coordinates:

Latitude : 48.746083
Longitude : 9.079959

Our goal is to understand the principles of Perception, Action and Learning in autonomous systems that successfully interact with complex environments and to use this understanding to design future systems